AMMASSALIK

also spelled Angmagssalik, town, southeastern Greenland, on the south coast of Ammassalik Island. The island is 25 miles (40 km) long and 1220 miles (1932 km) wide, with a high point of 4,336 feet (1,322 m). Although Europeans landed as early as 1472, the region was not explored until 1884, when Gustav Holm, a Dane, mapped the coast. A trading and mission station was established in 1895 to help sustain the Greenlandic (Eskimo) population with imported food and firearms for hunting. It was named for a fish called angmagssat (capelin) found in coastal waters. A weather and radio station is located there. Pop. (1990 est.) 1,465.